It’s a familiar plea from children to hear that they desperately want a pet, and usually a dog or cat.  If you succumb you will find that having a pet can bring many benefits to the family and the children themselves.  Children are like sponges and soon learn how to care properly for animals and how to respect and consider all living things.  This nurturing behaviour can stand them in good stead for developing sociable and responsible behaviour in later life that only an animal can bring.

You can get children involved with caring for the dog at feeding time.  By encouraging them to feed the dog with you they build up a close relationship with the dog and they also learn about the responsibility of looking after an animal.

Grooming a dog regularly gets them used to being handled.  If everyone in the family takes their turn the dog will grow to accept everyone handling them - even those outside of the family including your vet.

Training the dog is a fun way of children getting involved with caring for a dog.  They can practice fun tricks whilst the dog becomes more obedient with them.

Making sure you are fully covered by pet insurance will make trips to the vet less stressful for you.  Taking older children to the vet teaches them about caring medically for animals and about pest control.

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